Starmer sacks Mandelson as UK ambassador to US over Epstein friendship
Peter Mandelson has been withdrawn as ambassador to the US after emails revealed the depth of his relationship with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who picked the Labour grandee to be the UK’s representative in Washington, made the decision after emails showed the peer sent supportive messages even as Epstein faced jail for sex offences.
The Foreign Office said the emails showed ‘the depth and extent of Peter Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein is materially different from that known at the time of his appointment’.
He has now been withdrawn as ambassador with immediate effect.
Mandelson is reported to have told Epstein to ‘fight for early release’ shortly before he was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and told him, ‘I think the world of you’ the day before he began his sentence for soliciting prostitution from a minor in June 2008.
By David Hughes and Christopher McKeon
Press Association: News
source: PA
Copyright 2025 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.